Hard to believe summer is over and another school year has started.  This is year 25 for me and I feel as excited about this one and I did the first one.  Each year is a new start for each of us.  I have a great bunch of Techsperts and things are already rolling for our first book fair which starts on September  24.  Our theme for the year is Cinema Smash.  This book fair is about vintage books turned into movies.  The kids are learning about reels and what movies/books are vintage.  What is vintage to them is not what I meant.  It is fun watching them learn about them.  They are already planning decorations and such to make the space come alive.

We are also working on cleaning up the Learning Commons. Book shelves are being straightened and inventory of each fiction section is being completed.  The office space is being cleaning and organized as well.  Bulletin boards are being decorated.  We will start other projects as we get through the first few days of school.

iPads for those that paid their insurance will be deployed tomorrow.  The Tech Department will be here to make that happen.  It will take most of the day to get the almost 400 iPads deployed.  That will leave us with close to 300 left.  At this time, I do not have enough space to charge that many iPads. 

ESMS is hosting its final book fair for the 2017-18 school year.  It is a BOGO fair where you can stock up on summer reading material.  Plan to attend the Family Event which will be today from 4-6 PM.  See you there!

It is hard to believe that we have around 33 days left of school.  Our projects are coming along nicely and the Techpserts are hard at working planning for next year.  The eighth graders have almost completed the wall mural for the Innovations Lab.  The seventh graders are almost ready to decoupage pictures on the wood to display in the LC.  Sixth graders are hard at work on the book fair which is coming up soon.

The Book Bytes Book Fair will be April 20-27, The Family Event will take place on April 24 from 4-6 PM.  This will all take place in the Learning Commons.  We are excited to have the event with the technology theme.  We hope to see you all there stocking up on books for summer reading.

The Learning Commons has been a hopping place over the last few weeks.  We have had the Zoo with animals, and we have had kids building land rovers and racing them and much more.  Every day we have math students who are working independently in here.  We have students checking out materials on a daily basis....  I love the activity and the desire of the students to want to be in here!

This year has been a challenge with the high number of iPads in need of repair.  Also on a daily basis, students are in here with problems or questions on how to make the iPad work.  Our iPad collection will begin on May 17.  The Tech Department will be in charge of collecting the iPads.  It is always a stressful time and hopefully it will go smoothly.  Please plan to have your child's iPad, brick and cord at school on May 17.  Please contact me if you have any questions and I will do my best to get you answers.

​Thanks for following us this year and hope to see you back next year!

The third quarter is almost over!  WOW!  We have been working hard on our Leave Our Mark projects.  The mural is being drawn on the wall, the team wall plaques with pictures is being painted, tiles are being painted and readying to fire, the picture wall is being padded and covered in material, and so much more!  We have painted more walls and have added vinyl wall sayings.  THINGS are looking really good in here.

We have just received a shipment of new books plus our Overdrive eBooks are now available for our students.  I am already thinking about what books to add to our collection for next year.  Techsperts have been working on getting the genrification process done.  The books need to be completed in Destiny.  We have a little over 500 left to classify on the computer.  It is pretty exciting!

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WOW has it been busy around here.  The Techsperts are working on several interesting projects.  First, they are finishing up the part of the genrification in Destiny.  We have about 1500 titles left to finish.  Second, they are working on a project I call "Leave My Mark".  They had to come up with something that would be left in the LC that would add to the space.  They have come up with some amazing ideas from wall murals to team paws that will have pictures to walls of pictures to redesigning our "office space".  I am so excited!!!  I am working on ordering all the necessary materials to be able to complete these projects.  I also ordered some quotes to be displayed in the skylights.  AGAIN SO EXCITED!!! 

Techsperts are also working on writing articles for the newspaper that are being featured.  They are highlighting the great things that are going on here at ESMS.  The students have to select a topic, develop questions, people to interview, and then write the article which must be at least 2 paragraphs.  They then have to talk to ELA teachers to give them suggestions to improve the writing.  They then submit the article to me with a picture.  I then submit it to the paper.  The paper is loving and I am loving that the students are writing and sharing their work.  

We have a group of 8th grade math students meeting in here every day.  They are working independently for Miss Blair.  Love this idea and will do what it takes to support teachers with innovative teaching.  

This semester is flying by.  It is January already and I feel like we have accomplished so much but also feel like we have so much to get accomplished before May!!!  We will keep our focus and hopefully we will get everything done by the end of the school year....if not, there is always next year!

My apologies for the lack of posts lately.  My family has had some health issues and they have been time consuming.  I feel as though things have settled down just in time for the holidays!

The Learning Commons is changing into a Reading Wonderland.  The Techsperts have been decorating to have a winter theme.  It is pretty amazing.  I will post pictures on Twitter soon! 

The book fair which runs from November 29 until December 8 with family event night on December 5 will have a king and queen.  8th graders are running for the positions.  They win by collecting the most money for our All for Books campaign which will give books to the underprivileged kids of Excelsior Springs.  I am so proud of them as they have raised over a hundred dollars so far. 

The breaks are upon us and it will give us all time to reflect on what we can do to make positive changes for our school.  It will also give us time to refresh ourselves so we can finish the year strong. 

Happy Holidays to all my readers! 

Where has first quarter gone?  The quarter ends on October 18....time flies when you are busy.  We have all new students with iPads now (71 new and returning students) .  We are working on getting students who broke theirs back to them.  That is a chore!  Every day we have issues with iPads that include but are not limited to wifi connections, Google issues, forgotten passwords, broken devices and more!

Some of our programs have been put on hold...digital book talks have fallen to the wayside.  Things have been busy with book fairs and those take priority.  We have decided on Reading Wonderland for the book fair that starts on November 29.  It will run until December 8. The family event will take place on Tuesday, December 5 from 5 to 7 PM.  Hope everyone will come out and support the fair as the proceeds go to the Parent Group.  We will have a performance by the music department.  We will crown a King and Queen of the fair who will be there.  We are planning activities for our little ones who visit.  We are going to have a game room for them to visit with a goodie bag upon completion of their visit.  It will cost $2 for them to go in and the proceeds will be donated to our ALL FOR BOOKS program to get books for the needy kids of Excelsior Springs for the holidays.  We appreciate the support of the community.

I am working on getting new books ordered.  I plan to order both hardbacks and eBooks for this school year.  Our students have access to Overdrive where the school has an account and students can check out eBooks from our many titles.  We also have thousands of books in the LC available for student to check out.  Every team brings their students in every couple of weeks as each student is required to have a book to read during EXCEL.  I am so excited about that!

I am now looking forward to moving on to second quarter!  Here we come.....

Almost every student has an iPad issued to them.  We still have a few new students who are waiting on a device.  I am waiting on technology to deliver them.  SO CLOSE....With that said, we got 3 new students yesterday!  The surge in students is great!  That speaks volumes for our district!

The book fair starts on Monday, September 18 and will run through Friday, September 29.  Family night will be Tuesday, September 26.  I will announce the time soon.  We are so excited for our Reading Outlaw Book Fair to begin.  The decorating is in full swing in the LC.  We are hoping to have the best book fair yet!  The Techsperts are so excited for it to get here!

Last night the Library Media Specialists presented what we do to the Board of Education.  It was so exciting to share all of the important stuff going on in this space!  The BOE was pleased with what we are doing!  YEAH!  I love my job! 

Overdrive is working for all students.  Students can check out 5 eBooks for two weeks.  Students can also check out 2 books from the LC for two weeks at a time.  All EXCEL classes are requiring students to have a book to read during that time. 

I have a very good group of Techsperts who are working hard to keep our space collaborative.  They are working hard to keep books on the shelves (what are left after every student has checked one out!) and they are trying to keep the space in order after classes are visiting.  PLUS decorating the space for the book fair!   They have been instrumental in helping get out the iPads to new students.  They helped clean the iPads and helped the new students set up the iPads.  We still have a few to go but....WOW!  I am very appreciative of their efforts!

We have started our school year!  2017-18 first day is in the books....so is the first full week!  We have 60 new students to our building which is keeping me busy.  Each of those new students need an iPad issued to them.  The Techsperts and I have been working hard to make that happen.  We are now waiting on more iPads to be delivered as we have officially run out.

A new group of Techsperts started this year.  They are really excited and were ready to get started on projects.  They have been helping hand out iPads, prepping for the book fair, working on cleaning up their sections plus advertising for their sections, and more....busy busy busy!   I think we will get a lot accomplished with this group!  I am extremely excited at the possibilities. 

Our new stage with stools for recording got its first use today.  Mr. V is recording his guitar students in it.  So cool!  The stage is in the process of being painted by art students and Mrs. Pierson, our art teacher.  We have some really cool ideas for it.  Cannot wait for it to be completed and used more frequently.

I am off to complete more tasks to get us going on the 2017-18 school year...look forward to "talking" with you later!  Have a super weekend!

Next week, April 24-28 will be our third and final book fair for the year.  It is a BOGO fair (Buy One Get One Free)!  So EXCITED for this one!  We will be raising money for the All for Books and the teachers and Good Samaritan Center will benefit!  We will have a family night on Tuesday, April 25 from 4:30 until 7 pm.  At the family night, we will have raffles, scavenger hunts, camp fire songs (guitar and choir classes), and more.  Plan to be here to enjoy the fun and of course, buy books!  We have this one so parents and students can stock up on summer reading materials.  We only have a few weeks of school left and we want to get ready for summer reading!  Thanks to our parent group for running the fairs! 

May 12 is the day all materials are due back to the LC.  Students will need to take care of fines by then as well!  I will be making out obligation cards after iPads are collected on Tuesday, May 16.  Due on that day  are iPads in cases, cords and blocks.  Students will owe money if they are missing any part of that or any part is not functioning properly.  Thanks for your support on the collection of all student materials.  Our last day of scheduled classes is May 24.

Summer School is May 31 through June 27 from 8 am until noon.  If students attend summer school, they may be using their iPads as part of the class.  Please check the sign ups and choose an enrichment class to attend.  Classes should be loads of fun!  Hope to see you there!